The BBC commissioned a flight-sim reproduction of the last week's near-miraculous US Airways incident. So, in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like to pilot a commercial jet onto a river.

This digitl reenactment drives home just how quickly the events transpired, and how quickly the crew managed to respond. Another point raised by this video, though not as much as I would have liked: while the success of this landing largely came down do raw flight skill, piloting a jet like this is as much akin to running a computer terminal as it is to flying a fighter jet.

If the simulator camera had pulled back a little more, the sheer complexity of the Airbus A320's control panels would have been apparent. It was an acute sense of space and fantastic piloting abilities that brought the passengers down safely, yes, but also a magisterial command of the plane's many subsystems, including the vital fuselage sealing mechanism (apparently not). To drive home just how flawless this landing was, the BBC also includes footage of what can happen when a plane is landed on water incorrectly (Hint: death). [BBC via Neatorama]